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Allgaier outlasts chaos to make his winning move

MONTREAL -- Justin Allgaier might come from a family whose roots are deeply planted in oval track stock-car racing, but Saturday Lil' Gator proved he can turn left and right with the best of the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Allgaier captured his first win of the season at the NAPA Auto Parts 200 presented by Dodge on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, emerging in front after a frenzied green-white-checkered finish.

NAPA Auto Parts 200

Results

Pos.

Driver

Make

2.

Sam Hornish Jr.

Dodge

3.

Jacques Villeneuve

Dodge

4.

Elliott Sadler

Chevrolet

5.

Ron Fellows

Chevrolet

Standings

Pos.

+/-

Driver

Behind

2.

--

R. Stenhouse Jr.

-22

3.

--

S. Hornish Jr.

-22

4.

--

A. Dillon

-35

5.

--

J. Allgaier

-68

"Today was just an awesome day," said Allgaier. "Winning in Montreal means so much because all the people in the series enjoy coming here. The atmosphere is great, the fans never disappoint here but the race played out perfectly for us."

Allgaier was running third at the second attempt for a green-white-checkered finish when a last-lap bump put him in front of Penske Racing teammates Sam Hornish Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve, who ended up second and third, respectively.

"I knew I was closing in on Jacques, but he braked really early into Corner 6 and I was certain he had ran out of gas," added Allgaier. "He went really slow and I had too much of a head of steam and was sorry I got into him."

Hornish, who made one last charge at Allgaier on the final lap, seemed far from happy with his second-place finish.

"I should feel pretty content with finishing second but I feel that Penske Racing deserved more from this day, considering the two cars that they provided us," said Hornish after the race. "I was running confident, second to Jacques, and felt that we would be battling the win out between the two of us but the 30 [Alex Tagliani] stuck his nose in there on a restart with about 10 laps to go and I was sent back to 23rd place or so. I should be happy to finish second after restarting from 23rd, but we deserved better. "

The seven extra laps ran because of the two green-white-checkered finish attempts, which forced Villeneuve to eke out the last drops of Sunoco gasoline from his fuel cell. However, his Dodge Challenger ran out of fuel before getting back to the garage on the cool-down lap, and the Quebec-born driver says that he saved enough to get him easily to the checkered flag.

"I did not run out of fuel and my engine did not sputter," said Villeneuve. "I was simply taken out by Allgaier, who used me to slow down in Turn 6 on the last lap. It's frustrating because Penske and Dodge gave me such a good car. We ran head and shoulders above everyone else even if we were not attacking in order to save fuel and brakes for the end of the race. It's hard to take."

Allgaier was apologetic . . . but not too much so.

"I am really sorry that I took him out, but from what I've heard because I couldn't see it, earlier in the day, that same car spun out the 30 car [Tagliani] that just happened to be our teammate," Allgaier said. "So, I guess that what goes around comes around."

With 824 total points, Sadler extended his lead at the top of the Nationwide Series championship race to 22 points over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who wrecked late but still finished 12th. With his second-place finish, Hornish is now tied with Stenhouse with 802 points, while Austin Dillon (789) and Allaier (756) close out the top five in points.

Danica Patrick had a good day, leading 20 laps but mechanical issues on her GoDaddy Chevrolet relegated her to the 27th position, six laps behind the leaders.

"How disappointing is it? We're bound to catch some good luck some time. I just can't believe the amount of bad luck we've had, " said Patrick, who even hit a shoe thrown on the track by a fan at one point.

Notes-n-Nuggets

• Justin Allgaier won his third Nationwide race in his 130th start.

• Chicagoland, in June 2011, was Justin Allgaier's last win.

• Justin Allgaier won at Montreal in his fourth start after not finishing better than eighth before.

• There have been six different winners in six races at Montreal.

• This is Justin Allgaier's first win in 11 starts on a road course.

• Justin Allgaier led just one lap in the win, and has led a total of two laps in his last two victories.

• It's the sixth-ever win for Turner Motorsports, and third win of 2012.

• Turner Motorsports notched its first win at Montreal, and has won three of the last six road races.

• Elliott Sadler (fourth) earned his 16th top-10 finish of 2012, tying Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the most of 2012.

• Nine points were added to Elliott Sadler's Nationwide points lead, now up by 22.

• Ron Fellows (fifth) has top five finishes in all three road-course races this season.

Derek White, a regular in the NASCAR Canadian Tire series, was the best-finishing Quebec driver apart from Villeneuve with an 18th-place effort. Montreal-born Tagliani, who started from the pole position, led seven laps and ran up front most of the day, but was moved over by Villeneuve for the lead on Lap 67. Tagliani finished 22nd. Patrick Carpentier (29th), Andrew Ranger (32nd), Dexter Stacey (35th) and Louis-Philippe Dumoulin (38th) were the other Canadian drivers entered in the event.

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